How-To Guides
TouchDRO does a lot more than show where the table is. It can work from a CAD drawing or a photo of the part, keep track of your tools and their offsets, measure with a touch probe or a USB microscope, and stream position data to a dashboard. The guides on this page show you how to put those features to work on a real job in the shop. Each one starts with the setup and works through to the finished part on a manual mill or lathe. The user manual explains what every control does. The guides show you when to reach for it.
Working from a Drawing or a Photo
Machining to a CAD Drawing
Export a DXF from Fusion with the right units and line styles, import it into TouchDRO, and drill and mill the part straight from the drawing. No layout dye and no coordinate list.
Machining a Part from a Photo
When there is no drawing, a photo will do. Photograph the part, align the photo in TouchDRO with two caliper measurements, and drill a cover plate that matches it.
Tooling and Probing
How to Use a Tool Height Setter
Set the Z axis datum with a tool height setter, then swap cutters without touching off again, using the Set Z Reference and Hold functions.
Tool Compensation on a Manual Mill
Put your end mills in the tool library once, recall a cutter by name, and mill slots, pockets, and stock to size with no diameter math on each move.
Tool Length Offsets on a Manual Mill
Measure a Z offset for every cutter in quick-change holders such as TTS, store it in the tool library, and change tools mid-job without a touch-off.
Touch Probe Setup and Calibration
Mount a touch probe so its measurements repeat, center it on the spindle axis with the 180-degree flip check, and measure its effective tip diameter with the calibration wizard and a ring gauge.
USB Centering Microscope Setup
Turn an inexpensive USB microscope into a centering microscope for your mill: mount it off the spindle axis, align it, and store its offsets in TouchDRO.
Reverse Engineering a Part with a Digital Microscope
Measure the hole centers, bolt circles, and outline of an existing part with a low-cost digital microscope and measurement mode, then drill the mating part from the same coordinates.
Machine Setup and Monitoring
DRO Set Up on a Combination Machine
On a mill/lathe combo or universal mill, the axes change with the spindle. Give each mode its own machine profile, with no scales moved and no recalibration.
Adding a Spindle Tachometer to TouchDRO
Choose between a Hall effect sensor and an optical sensor, place the magnets or make the encoder disk, and wire the sensor to the adapter's tachometer input to get a live RPM and surface speed readout.
Improving Magnetic DRO Scale Accuracy
Measure the error in a magnetic scale with 1-2-3 blocks, then correct it with an error map built against a glass reference scale. No interferometer needed.
Monitoring a Manual Mill with MQTT
Put a manual mill or lathe on a live dashboard. Stream position and spindle data over MQTT or TCP into Node-RED, Home Assistant, Grafana, or Ignition, all free.